1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to substrate structures, and, more particularly, to a substrate structure and a simplified method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
As the technology continues to advance, industrial and commercial developments are growing rapidly, leading to convenience orientated global economics. Barcode technology is therefore developed to enhance efficiency in organizing tasks and information.
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data relating to the object to which it is attached, such as catalog number, company number or examination number. Up to date, this barcode technology has been widely applied in commercial industries and in daily life. As the demand of accommodating data is increasing everyday, the barcode technology has been developed from one dimensional bar code (such as JAN13) to two dimensional barcode (such as Matrix code, PDF417). The size of the barcode is also decreasing.
In general, a barcode is often tagged on an appropriate place of the package or surface of the product. A common form of a barcode label is an image having alternating black-white strips. After illuminating the barcode by infrared, due to the properties in which black color tends to absorb light while white color reflects the light, information of the product can be recognized through converting the light waves into electronic pulses and then to obtain the hidden information behind the barcode. Accordingly, clarity of the barcode is a very important aspect in research to correctly distinguish the barcodes to obtain the information.
FIGS. 1A to 1D are cross-sectional views illustrating a method of manufacturing a 2D barcode on a conventional substrate.
As shown in FIG. 1A, a board 10 has a first surface 101 and an opposing second surface 102, and a metallic layer 11 is formed on the first surface 101 and second surface 102.
As shown in FIG. 1B, a patterning process is performed to etch the metallic layer 11, so as to form a patterned metallic layer 12 having a plurality of holes 121, and a portion of the first surface 101 and a portion of the second surface 102 are exposed from the holes 121.
As shown in FIG. 1C, a protective layer 13 having a plurality of holes 131 is formed on the portions of the first surface 101 and the second surface 102 that are exposed from the holes 121. A portion of the patterned metallic layer 12 is exposed from the holes 131.
As shown in FIG. 1D, a laser process is performed on the protective layer 13 to form a protective pattern 130, which forms the 2D image. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 1D′, inkjet is used to form an applying layer 14 on the protective layer 13, so as to form another protective pattern 130′ for forming the 2D barcode image.
However, the 2D barcode image is formed on the protective layer 13 in the aforementioned method of manufacture of the 2D barcode on the substrate by laser or inkjet. This increases the cost of the equipment and human resources, and also has the problem of prolonged manufacture process. Moreover, the conventional 2D barcode image is displayed in grey scale, resulting in a decrease in clarity of the displayed barcode image, undesirably making it difficult to be recognized.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for solving the prior art problems.